French Enchantments
by lightning bug
Summary: Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter their sixth year only to find that there's a French girl visiting the school for a year. She seems perfect, but she's harboring a secret, one that could ruin her life. Romance appears way later on. R
1. Prologue- Need I go on?

            This is my new series. It is about a French student who comes to Hogwarts for a year. There is nothing about the French girl in this chapter, but she comes up in the next chapter. Just read and review or else!

                                                Claire, but known in the fanfic world as lightning bug

The Prologue

            Harry Potter was spending the summer with the Weasley's. He had just celebrated his sixteenth birthday, and they would be boarding the Hogwarts Express the day after tomorrow. 

            He and Ron were sitting on the hill near the Burrow, doing their astronomy homework. Harry was looking up at the sky, thinking about how perfect life was. He and Ron were not actually doing their homework, but were pretending to anyways. Harry was looking out at the view. You could see the lights of the town near-by, and if you looked up, you could see more stars than one would think existed. 

Just as Harry was still thinking about his life, and how good it was (if you ignored the fact that Voldemort was out killing hundreds of people), Hermione came running out of the house. Her face was stained with tears, and more were coming out. 

            She looked as though she had been crying for a long time and a new bout of tears were starting. She was running towards the hill where they were sitting, maybe hoping that the view would cure her. "Hermione!" Ron and Harry yelled. Hermione noticed that they were in the general direction of where she was going, and ran over and sat down next to them. "What's wrong?" Harry asked.

            Hermione tried to stop crying. "Last week I got an owl from Lavender. She said she'd heard that Viktor was dating my friend Emma Moon." Hermione gulped and continued, "Well, I wrote to him and asked if it was true. I just got his reply and he said that they had been dating since a little after the second task. He never told me. I thought that everything was going so well with us." Hermione dried her eyes, though the tears were still flowing. "It's just that it felt so right when we were together. And now it's all over. Almost two years together, and it's over! Why did I let myself love him? Why?" Hermione leaned onto Harry and cried into his shoulder until she fell asleep ten minutes later.

            Harry gently laid her down on the blanket that they had been sitting on. "What a bastard, to do that right before school started." He said, "She always feels the pressure this time of year, and he has to go ruin her life two days before term starts."

            "Good thing that it's over though. He was too old for her" Ron said, "I still can't believe that he's been dating her and someone else for almost two years. And I wanted his autograph." He looked down at the sleeping Hermione with sad eyes.

            They stayed outside for the rest of the time. Harry and Ron talked about everything they could think of, their upcoming sixth year at Hogwarts, what they got on the O.W.L.S., wondering if they would ever find another a chaser. A few hours later, the sun came up and when the first rays danced across Hermione's eyes, she awoke. She scolded them for letting her sleep outside and for not doing their homework ("What will you say to the teachers if you haven't done your summer assignments!). 

"Everything's back to normal" Harry thought, "And it'll be even more so (as normal as normal can be there) when we get back to Hogwarts"

            How very wrong he was.

O.k. that was just the prologue, really short, I know. I just wanted everyone to know that Hermione is no longer dating anyone and her ex-boyfriend is a jerk. I am going to ask you again: PLEASE REVIEW MY STORY. CONSTURCTIVE CRITISICM IS WELCOME, BUT NO FLAMES PLEASE! Just stay tuned for the next episode, um chapter, of _French Enchantments_


	2. A Departure and Two Arrivals

A.N here we go, the first real chapter of my new series. Just read and review, or else. Flames will be ignored.

A Departure And An Arrival

            The day they left for Hogwarts was a nice day. It was a big difference to the horrible weather that they had endured for the past three years. Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to be in the mood for enjoying the sunny day though

"You better get onto that train now, or else it'll leave without you. Ginny! Where are you! Get over here. You can see your friends later" Mrs. Weasley was trying to herd the four children onto the train. She was having a rather hard time at it, because Ginny kept trying to see her friends, and Hermione kept trying to catch Crookshanks, who kept trying to escape and catch Neville's toad, Trevor.

When everyone was in, they stuck their heads out of the windows to say their goodbyes. "My, my. I'm only saying goodbye to two of my children this year. And all of them are so big. It seems like just yesterday you were first years. And it's just as sad to see Harry and Hermione go off, it's like you're my children now too. Sigh." Mrs. Weasley was looking sad, "Well have a good term, and please don't go looking for trouble. But I guess I shouldn't even tell you that, since it seems you get into trouble one way or another." 

            The train started moving. Harry and the others waved to Mrs. Weasley until the train went 'round the bend. Harry turned around to find a very red Ron and Ginny. "Since Fred and George graduated, she's been making this big deal about me being her oldest at Hogwarts. It's getting to be a real pain," Ron said.

            "Well at least you don't have it as bad as me." Ginny said, "All I ever hear is 'I can't believe that my baby girl is in her fifth year already!' And then she says that it seems like just yesterday that I was starting my first year. Then she starts crying because of what happened in my first year. It's horrible, because she does this every time a friend asks her about us."

            "At least you have a mum to embarrass you." Harry said. That shut the both of them up very quickly.

            "Well," Hermione said, quickly changing the subject, "I wonder who our new Defense Against The Dark Arts Teacher will be?"

            "Have we ever even had a tiny inkling of knowledge of that?" Ginny said. "I do think we'll have a new one every year. The job seems to be cursed. And I think it was that Lockhart who cursed it, he was a flaming idiot." 

            They talked some more. Well Ron, Harry, and Ginny did. Hermione was immersed in her new book "The Standard Book Of Spells: Grade Six", and was trying to see if she could perform a charm that would make animals change into another animal for five seconds (she wasn't very good at it because Crookshanks kept on running away). Ginny was just telling them how much better the Gryffindor Quidditch team will be with her as a chaser, when the door to the compartment opened.

            "Well, well, well. It's time for our annual visit." Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle were standing in the doorway. "So there's going to be another Weasley on the team. Well Potter, as captain, you must be the one to look for new players. How desperate can you be, if you have to get the president of your fan club to play for you?"

             Ginny turned red, which Malfoy immediately saw "What, scared to make a fool of your self in front of the whole school? Or just to make a fool of yourself in front of Potter? But enough about that, the real reason I came was to see if Mudblood was still alive. I'm surprised that the Death Eaters haven't come for her already. I may have to give them her address" 

            Harry and Ron jumped up, their wands out, "Shut up Malfoy." Ron growled.

            "Actually I haven't finished talking yet." Malfoy said, smiling like a Cheshire Cat. " Now where was I? Oh yes, it's a shame that not all of the Mudbloods have been wiped out yet."

            Harry and Ron were just about to curse Malfoy with the first spell they could think of, when they heard a voice say, "I hope you're not fighting boys." The woman who was in charge of the food trolley had come up to their compartment. 

            Harry and Ron put away their wands quickly. "Of course not, we were just practicing some spells." Ron said.

            "Well, I better not see those wands out again. Do you want anything off the cart?" In this space of time, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had slipped back to their compartment. The four bought a lot of candy, hoping it would calm their anger against Malfoy.

            "If he wasn't such an asshole, he could be almost bearable." Ron said. Everyone there heartily agreed. After they had quickly finished off their candy, they played Exploding Snap, which (although they got slightly singed) kept them well entertained until they got to Hogwarts.

            The castle looked as it always did. They could see it's many turrets and towers as they took the carriages up to the castle. After getting off the carriages, they were jostled this was and that as they tried to get into the Castle. They got in all right, though they were a little bruised, and walked quickly to the Great Hall, all of them thinking about food.

            When they got in, Ginny went off with her friends, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione found three seats together and sat there. The usual line of terrified first-years came through the door. Harry remembered when he was sorted and thinking that the hat would never decide where to put him. The first years finished in about ten minutes (there seemed to be less this year). And then McGonagall took the stool and the Sorting Hat, handed them to Filch, and took her seat at the High Table. 

Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat. "For those of you who are new, welcome to Hogwarts. Please allow me a few minutes to lay down the ground rules here. For those of you are returning, you may choose not to listen, but some of you might find it wise to go over these rules again. No Magic is to be used in the corridors. There has also been an update to the objects forbidden in the castle. But the list is too long to go over verbally, so if you are interested, please see Mr. Filch" Dumbledore stopped speaking for a minute so that some people could stop laughing, "The Forbidden Forest is off-limits to everyone unless you are serving detention. Hogsmeade is only open to students in the third year and above who have a signed permission form."

            "And one last usual announcement, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore was quiet for a moment, giving the effect of a rather dramatic pause, "Please meet Professor Black" Sirius walked into the hall. 

"SIRIUS!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione yelled. No one heard them though. There was a lot of yelling, people saying things like, "But he's a murderer. He can't be our teacher." "Cool, we have a cold-blooded killer for a teacher! This'll be better than Moody!"

            "Quiet!" Dumbledore yelled. "Professor Black never murdered anyone. He was framed by Peter Pettigrew, who is not dead and was working with Voldemort until his capture yesterday. When we caught Pettigrew, he pled guilty to betraying the Potter's. Black was cleared, and he is now your teacher. I expect you to treat him with the same courtesy you treat all other teachers." Dumbledore spoke with such ferocity that everyone was very quiet. "Now, let the feast begin."

            The food appeared suddenly, and the normal babble of talk resumed. 

"Sirius got out!" Hermione said, "This is great!"

"Yeah," said Ron, "Now we don't have tom go sneaking around to go visit him, like in our fourth year."

"I don't have to stay with the Dursleys anymore! And it'll be almost like having my father back." Harry said, the smile on his face growing.

 All of the other sixth-year Gryffindors were talking about Sirius too. "I can't believe we got a teacher who's an escaped convict. It'll be great." Seamus Finnigan said.

            "I know, he can tell us all about it. How scary it was, and what the dementors were like!" Dean Thomas said, as he ate his food.

            "Dean, we already know to much about the dementors. Or have you completely forgotten your third year?" Lavender asked.

            "He's your godfather, isn't he Harry? And you visited him in our fourth year." Neville Longbottom asked.

            Everyone nearby went quiet. "How did you know?" Harry asked.

            "Gram told me when he escaped that he was your father's friend. And I heard you, Ron, and Hermione talking about it. You really need to be more secretive." Neville said.

            "You're godfather's Sirius Black?" Seamus said, sounding impressed.

            "Yeah, he was my father's best friend at school. We've been writing to each other since the end of third year" Harry said, still wondering how Neville could've known. Dean and Seamus were speechless.

            The rest of dinner was filled with talk of Sirius and the new school year. When everyone had finished, Dumbledore dismissed them. Harry, Hermione, and Ron hung back so they could talk to Sirius. When everyone had left, they went up to the High Table. "Hello Harry, Ron, Hermione. Bet you never thought you'd see me here?" Sirius asked.

            "This is great Sirius!" Harry said

            "You get to be our teacher! Too bad Fred and George couldn't be here for this." Ron said, "What are you going to teach us anyway?"

            "You'll find out soon enough." Sirius said, smiling in a mysterious way.

            "How did they catch Pettigrew, Professor Black?" Hermione asked.

            "We're out of class Hermione," Sirius said, "You can call me anything, though I prefer 'Padfoot' or just the traditional 'Sirius'"

            "Okay, Padfoot, how did they catch him?" Hermione asked again.

            "It was thanks to Severus." Sirius slightly grimaced, " He was able to find out where Pettigrew was living and then Dumbledore found him. Wormtail was brought into the Ministry where he told everything. Without Vertisarum. According to Dumbledore, he was crying like a baby."

            "What did they do to him?" Ron said

            "They put him in Azkaban. I hope he has the same wonderful time that I had there." Sirius smiled, but his smile looked like he was trying to not remember something very bad. "Now, you three need to get to bed. You do have class tomorrow."

            "Yes sir, Professor Black!" Harry said, pretending to salute.

Just as they were leaving, the doors opened. In walked a girl who looked to be about Harry's age. She was carrying a small trunk and walked up to the table. She stopped in front of Dumbledore and said "Excusez moi Monsieur Dumbledore. Mon nom est Arlette Pilliot."  
             Dumbledore paused for a moment thinking, then said, "Suivez moi" He lead her over to a chair, and then put the Sorting Hat on her head. Harry and Ron looked at Hermione and she whispered, "She's French. Must've just moved here." Suddenly they heard a voice boom out "GRYFFINDOR!" Dumbledore turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and said, "This is our new exchange student, Arlette Pilliot from Beauxbatons. She'll be staying for just one year. Would you please show her around the school?" 

            "We would love to!" Hermione said.

            Dumbledore turned to Arlette and said "Suivez les". She nodded and followed them out of the hall.

            Harry looked at her for the first real time. She was of average height with long brown hair and blue eyes. She didn't seem to want to talk much for the first few minutes. But finally blurted out, "I am sorry that I don't talk much. I am afraid I might say something wrong, or start blabbering away in French."

            Ron didn't know what she was talking about, because she spoke with perfect English, and had only the slightest of accents. "Your English is great. Really" 

            Arlette looked flattered, blushed, and then said, "I learned English at Beauxbatons. They taught it there."

            "They teach languages at Beauxbatons?" Hermione asked, looking scandalized because Hogwarts had no such program.

            "Yes. They also teach  Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian." Arlette said.

            Hermione and Arlette immediately started talking about classes. Hermione said that Arlette should really be taking Study of Ancient Ruins, thought Arlette was arguing that Advanced Arithmancy was better.

            Harry and Ron stopped listening at this point of the conversation. They hung back, walking behind the girls. Harry was just looking at Arlette's small frame, when he and Ron looked at each other. "Are you thinking," Harry asked

            "What I'm thinking?" Ron said.

"Yeah!" Harry nodded  "Arlette, do you know how to play Quidditch?" 

            Arlette, who had been talking about Care of Magical Creatures with Hermione, looked startled by this question and answered, "Yes, I played Chasing Girl, what do you call it, Chaser for my team."

            "YES!" Ron and Harry said "Do you want to join the house team?" Ron asked. Arlette agreed to do so. "Yes, we finally have our last chaser! The Gryffindor Team is ready for practice!" Ron said, positively glowing with excitement. 

            They had now come to the Gryffindor common room. Hermione and Arlette said goodnight to them, and went to their dormitories. Harry and Ron went up to the boy's rooms. "We finally have a chaser. It was great luck, her being put into Gryffindor." Ron said, changing into his pajamas, "We finally have a complete team. And we've been looking since May….."

            Harry told Ron he agreed, and goodnight. 'It's been a long day' Harry thought as he climbed into bed, and he drifted off into sleep, and on the other side of the tower, Arlette was doing the same.

A.N: OK, not much about Arlette, just the basics. PLEASE REVIEW THIS THING. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep on reading, if my muse feels like cooperating, I'll have the next chapter up in a few days. 


	3. YES, I know it's been months since I upl...

A.N: I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't mean for it to be a few months for this next chapter, I swear.

 Roast in Hell, me. But here it is the next chapter. Read, review, or else. Thanks to my reviewers:

**WeasleySweetie: My first review! Thanks!**

**Mrs. B: You are? Thanks!**

**Constantine1453: No, he isn't a nice person, and she won't be a Mary sue, I promise.1**

**I1mhotep Adreth Bey: Wormtail thought everyone thought he was dead, why would he hide?**

**Eliza: Thanks, even though you were using my computer, so I knew what you would say…**

**Flying Fire: Yeah, I always forget to make it more descriptive, thanks!!!  
Alicia Jennings: Thank you, and write more of Diaspora and Legend of Chasity Lorna.**

**Willow: Thanks, and I loved "Summer at the Burrow"**

**aqualaria: thanks, and thanks again.**

**Hedwig: Here's the chapter…**

**onewhowrites: thanks, did you change your penname?**

**Cee: Thankies, thankies, and thankies!**

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Chapter Two

            "Harry wake up!" Harry was being roughly shaken by Ron, "Boy Who Lived, wake up! We have to get breakfast!" Harry rolled over and got his glasses. 

            "What are you doing, being up before me?" He asked. "I was hungry." Ron said simply

            In about five minutes, Harry and Ron were on their way to the Great Hall. "First day back. It's definitely going to be an interesting year." Harry said.

            "Yeah, especially with Sirius and Arlette here." Ron said, smiling, "I still can't believe we got a chaser! It's like she was sent from above!"

            They entered the Great Hall and found Hermione and Arlette chatting away. Hermione looked up at them and said, "Here's your new timetables. You'll never believe what class they've given us first."

            Harry looked down at the schedule and saw what the first class was. "Defense Against The Dark Arts Grade Six. Professor Sirius Black" Ron laughed.

            "Is this odd?" Arlette asked. Harry looked at Arlette. She was staring up at him with big blue eyes. She looked like any other girl in the hall, but she seemed to stand out from the others (**I know Mary Sue, I'm sorry!). Of course, this could've been from the fact that she had worn blue robes instead of black.**

            "Well, he's my godfather, and we know that it's going to be an interesting class." Harry told her.

            "Oh, well, that clears things up." Arlette said. "By the way, what is the divination class like?" Ron snorted. Hermione decided to answer that question, "It's stupid and pointless."

            "And Hermione's not good at it." Ron added.

            "That is not the reason. Prof. Trelawny has serious problems." Hermione scoffed. They bickered back and forth for minutes, and they started to get off subject.

            "Do they do this often?" Arlette asked, surveying the fight laid out before her. 

            "Always." Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione and Ron's fighting was a normal daily event now. "As much as we would love to discuss this matter," Harry commented, "We need to eat breakfast."

            "Okay." Ron said, still glaring at Hermione. "So Arlette, your from France?" He asked, turning to her.

            "Yes, from Balemes. It's near la source de Marne," She said. Then seeing Ron's and Harry's puzzled look, she added. "It's a small town in the Haute Marne." Neither Ron nor Harry still seemed to get it, so she added, "It's a few hours from Paris."

            "Why are you at Hogwarts?" Harry asked. Hermione sighed. She had obviously found all this out the night before.

            "It was an exchange program that school was doing, I was picked to go for this year, maybe next year too." Arlette shrugged. "It is up to me whether or not I stay."

            "And you really play Quidditch?" Ron asked, grinning. "And you're good?"

            Arlette blushed. "I'm not that good. Marie is much better than I am, so is Victoire. But I would be glad to help out the team."

            "Good enough for us." Harry said. He looked at the clock on the wall. "I'd really like to prolong this talk, but we can't miss Sirius's first class- excuse me Professor Black's first class." 

            The whole class was standing outside the door of the Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom. The door was still locked shut.

"This is great." Dean said, "Our first class of the year is the best one." He then noticed Arlette. "Who's she?"

            "Her name's Arlette. She's a French exchange student." Ron told him

            "Does she speak English?" Dean asked

            "Yes I do. Hello." Arlette said. "I may not know much about the school, but I'm not an invalid." Harry noticed that she pronounced her 'Th.'s' with a 'z'

            Dean smiled, embarrassed, and turned around to talk with Seamus.

            The door to the classroom opened, and all filed in. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got seats up at the front. The class tittered, not sure whether to talk or not. Then a black dog walked in. "What is that huge dog doing here!" Parvati screeched. The dog looked up at her, and kept walking.

            When it was level with Harry, he looked at the dog and said "Hello Snuffles."

            The dog got up to the front of the room and stood there for a minute. Then it changed into Sirius. There was a gasp from the class, then some applause. "Thank you. But seeing as this isn't Transfiguration, we won't discuss that any further. Well, the last time I was in this classroom, I was the student. Who here has the desk that says 'J.P. Loves L.F.'?"

            Lavender raised her hand. "Congratulations, you have my desk. I filled that in for James. We can only hope that there are no more dung bombs in the secret compartment." Lavender looked worried, and tried to see if Parvati would trade desks with her (Parvati refused quickly).

            "I would also like to announce, for those who do not already know, we have a new student in our midst. Arlette Pilliot, who just got here last night from Beauxbatons on a student exchange program. So please say 'hullo' to her or something." Sirius smiled at Arlette, who, embarrassed, smiled back in return.

            "So, what do you think you are going to learn this year?" Sirius asked them. No one knew. "Well, you will be learning intermediate curses. Not any of that stuff Moody taught you. This will be a bit more low-key." He passed around textbooks, and then took out his wand, and instructed the class to do the same.

            "Say 'Allicarte'"

            "Allicarte" The class said. Bright red sparks shot out of their wands, and the ceiling above Neville caught fire.  
            Sirius ran over, dousing the flames in water from his wand. "I should have warned you, you have to point your wand a certain way. Now, does anyone know what the point of this spell is?"

            Inevitably, Hermione's hand shot up. Sirius nodded at her and she said (in a rather rushed voice) "It's a spell used to defend you from fire or fire-like substances, using fire to fight fire."

            "Very good Hermione, I can tell you've been studying." Hermione smiled her usual smile after getting praised, and the rest of the class tried to hide their resentment. "Now, we are going to pair up the class, and you may use the simple fire spell you learned last year."

            Harry and Ron teamed up, and after the first try, Harry got rather singed. "Um, excuse me, Professor Black, we have a problem." Ron said, trying not to laugh at the sight of Harry's now powder black face.

            Sirius, who was having trouble stifling his laughs, said "Er- bring down the fire power and you should have no problems."

            A few more minutes were spent with their practicing, and Sirius asked them to go back to their desks. " I hate to tell you this, but you have a homework assignment." The class groaned. "But, I'm letting you do it in class, so you can finish it here." Some people still groaned, but not as many. "Your assignment is to write a paper on the fire reversal spell and give seven reasons why you would use it." The only people who didn't groan this time were Hermione and Arlette.

            Harry and Ron started their reports, thinking of funny excuses to use the spell. But forty-five minutes later, they were still three short. Harry looked over at Arlette's paper. Hers, like Hermione's, was filled with informational things that Harry or Ron would never write. 

            Ron was tapping his pencil on the side of his desk when he thought of another idea. "Hey, Harry" he whispered. "I've got another one, If Hagrid decides to get another Norwegian Ridgeback." 

            "Oh, I hadn't thought of that one!" Harry whispered back. Hermione looked over at Ron's paper and sighed. "Aren't you going to put something useful on there?"

            "Well, these are useful. I'd definitely use the charm if I ever came upon a volcano." Harry said. "Or one of those rare fire-breathing daisies Sprout told us about last year."

            Arlette tapped Hermione's shoulder. "Um, excuse me, Hermione, I need a little help with some of the words in the book. I didn't get a study in English Defense terms." She said. Hermione turned to help her, and Harry tried to think of more reasons to use a fire defense spell.

            Fifteen minutes later, they were released from class, Harry had promised to see Sirius before dinner; the Gryffindors set off to the dungeons. "Arlette, you are about to enter the bottom floor of the abyss, the devil's lair, Kankredin's main meeting room (**A.N. It's from Dalemark Quartet, Kankredin was the stealer of souls,)" Ron said. "But it's also known as," Harry said,**

            "Snape's Potions classroom." The two said together. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Is he that bad?" Arlette asked. She took Harry and Ron's laughs for a 'yes'.

            They walked into the classroom, and found a table that seated four. Snape was at his desk, wearing a look that was icy. "Well, I might as well go introduce myself." Arlette said. Before any of them could advise her against it, she had walked to the front of the room. "Excuse me, Monsieur Snape, my name is Arlette Pilliot, I am here on an exchange program from Beauxbatons."

            Snape looked startled for a minute, then recovered himself and smirked. "Would you like it if I announced it to the entire class that we have such an important person in our class now?" Snape had seemed a bit offset at Arlette's boldness (no student had ever introduce themselves before, it just wasn't done) and decided to use his best defense, sarcasm. "Only is you find it appropriate. And I just want to add that Hermione will be helping me if I can't translate some of the words, we will talk quietly."

            Most students were either so scared by Snape's cruel sarcasm and were rendered speechless, or the were afraid to open their mouth for what they might say. Snape was so surprised that he wasn't getting the standard reaction, that he didn't reply, and Arlette went back to her seat. Ron tried very hard not to clap. "Where did you learn how to stand up to Snape?"

            "I have a relative like him, I got used to it." Just then, Malfoy came in followed by his group of Slytherins. He stopped laughing when he saw Arlette. "Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy, and you are?"

            "Arlette Pilliot." Arlette said. "I'm an exchange student from France."  She gave him a curious smile.

            "Well, it is nice to meet you. If you ever need anything, anyone to show you around, just call upon me." He smiled again at her, then returned to his seat near the front of the room.

            "He seems nice." Arlette said. Then she saw the look on Hermione's face. "What, did I say something wrong, did I use the wrong word?"

            "No, your words were clear, it's just the content that's upsetting us." Harry said. "That guy is evil. Pure evil."

            "Well, we don't know that for sure. But he's not a very nice person." Hermione added. "And he's from a different house, Slytherin, that's You-Know-Who's house when he was here."

            "Well, he was nice to me. Maybe he's not all that bad." Arlette said. Harry decided that Potions class was not the place to discuss how horrible Slytherins were, so the subject was dropped.

            "Today, we will be making the Draught of Living Death (**A.N. I don't think I spelled that right, forgive me.) "You should have all the ingredients for it. I'll write them up on the board. The directions are on page forty-two of your new Potions book, which I trust that you have too." Snape went up to the board to write the directions.**

            Hermione helped Arlette translate the ingredients. Snape heard the whispering and turned around to see who it was, but when he saw that it was Arlette, he didn't do anything.

            Malfoy noticed this and started talking to Crabbe. Snape turned around again. "Malfoy, stop talking now or I'll take points." 

            Malfoy was enraged. He started to protest when Snape said "Mr. Malfoy, I have already warned you once, one more time and I will take five points from Slytherin."

            Harry was astounded; this was the first time he had ever gotten made at Malfoy, and all because of Arlette. "Beside the basic ingredients, there are others to be added later. We will be preparing some of these now. Take out all the ingredients with an 'x' next to them and prepare them the way the book tells you to. I need to step out for a minute. If you make any loud noises, you'll all have detention."

            The moment the door closed, the class broke into an excited murmur. "Snape, leaving us alone!" Ron said.

            "Well, we better go ahead and start doing what he said." Hermione said as she grabbed her supplies. "It would be horrible for him to come back and we haven't done anything."

            "Hermione, only you could ruin such a moment as this." Harry said. "And anyway, where is he going?"

            "Maybe it has something to do with what Dumbledore had him do over the summer." Ron suggested. "Hermione's right though, we should get started." So they set to work on their potion ingredients, Hermione translating every once in a while for Arlette. Thirty minutes later, Snape had come back into the dungeon. The class had been surprisingly quiet, for Snape did have that nasty habit of coming in very quietly and catching you when you don't want to be caught. But when he came in, the class went even quieter.

            Snape banged the door on the way in, went to his desk, grabbed a bunch of papers, and left again. "I say he's up to something." Harry whispered. 

            "You think?" Hermione whispered back. It was another fifteen minutes before Snape was back again. 

            "Have you finished your ingredients?" He asked. The class told him yes, they had finished. "You may use the rest of your time to read pages one fifty to one seventy seven and take notes on the potion." 

            The reading was difficult. The pages had been derived from a very old spell-book, and it was full of words that no one used anymore. Harry was wondering how much trouble Arlette must be having if he couldn't understand it. She did look lost; Harry noticed when he looked over at her.

            But quicker than he thought possible, Snape was dismissing them for lunch. "Miss Pilliot." He said as Arlette walked past his desk. "It would be in your favor to wear your Hogwarts robes tomorrow."

            "Thank you, monsieur" Arlette said, her voice syrupy sweet. She tried to walk out the door, but it was blocked by Malfoy, who was looking right at her.

**A.N: Please don't ask me if that's a cliffie. Because if it is, it's a sad one. My next chapter will hopefully not take five months this time! Read Review, Check Back Impatiently For New Chapters.**

**                        ~lightning bug~**


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